A! Magazine for the Arts

Dr. Wendy Welch gives a multi-faceted view of the system through the eyes of children, foster parents and caseworkers.

Sunday with Friends hosts fall event

August 27, 2019

The “Sunday with Friends” program at the Washington County Public Library, Abingdon, Va., has a special September event featuring the two authors of books on the foster care and adoptions system in the region. The program is Sunday, Sept. 8, at 3 p.m. in the conference room at the library.

“Fall or Fly” by Dr. Wendy Welch is a compelling glimpse into the complex world of foster care and adoption in modern-day Appalachia. Welch, an ethnographer and journalist, gives a multi-faceted view of the system through the eyes of children, foster parents and caseworkers.

Her work is based on interviews with more than 60 social workers, parents and children who have gone through the foster care system. This pioneering work of journalism explores how compassion, love, money and fear intermingle in what can be described as a marketplace for our nation’s children.

Deborah Gold’s “Counting Down” is a memoir of both the rewards and the daunting challenges of being in a foster family, based on her and her husband’s 15 years of being foster parents. She introduces the reader to a remarkable fellowship of Appalachian foster parents — gay, straight, right, left, evangelical, atheist — united by love and loss.

Appalachian novelist Ron Rash says that “Counting Down” is “beautifully written. It reads like a novel and should be required reading in every child psychology and women’s studies class, and in every education, family law and medical course in the country.”

There will be book sales and signings as well as a reception after the event. For more information, visit www.wcpl.net.